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gombeen

[ gom-been ]

/ gɒmˈbin /

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noun Irish English.

QUIZZES

THINK YOU’VE GOT A HANDLE ON THIS US STATE NICKNAME QUIZ?

Did you ever collect all those state quarters? Put them to good use on this quiz about curious state monikers and the facts around them.

Question 1 of 8

Mississippi’s nickname comes from the magnificent trees that grow there. What is it?

The Sunflower State

The Evergreen State

The Magnolia State

The Mockingbird State

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of gombeen

1860–65; <Irish gaimbín interest, especially exorbitant interest, literally, bit, small piece, diminutive of gamba lump, hunk

Words nearby gombeen

golp, Golschmann, Goltz, GOM, Gombe, gombeen, gombeenism, gombeen-man, Gomberg, gombo, gombroon

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Example sentences from the Web for gombeen

Gombeen man; a usurer who lends money to small farmers and others of like means, at ruinous interest.
English As We Speak It in Ireland|P. W. Joyce
For the name of this grisly and terribly real spectre is gombeen; which, in the Irish tongue, signifies usury.
Disturbed Ireland|Bernard H. Becker
This poor innocent was charging just 60 per cent., but his terms were lavishly liberal as compared with those of the gombeen man.
Disturbed Ireland|Bernard H. Becker
At Burtonport we found the “Gombeen man,” of Dungloe, represented by a very large “store.”
Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888)|William Henry Hurlbert

The priest and the “Gombeen man” deal with them on the old principle of “freedom of contract.”
Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888)|William Henry Hurlbert

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